MOSK: Live - The Medium-Sized List of Apps
On the 11.09.2011 edition of Mac OS Ken: Live, I asked listeners to call in some of their favorite iOS apps. Here are the links to what was called in:
Waze GPS & traffic - Social, fun! - Free
Newsrack - $4.99
Grocery IQ - Free
Gas Cubby FREE - Fuel Economy (MPG, Mileage) Calculator and Car Maintenance & Service Log
Gas Cubby - Fuel Economy (MPG, Mileage) Calculator and Car Maintenance & Service Log - $4.99
You Need a Budget (YNAB) - $4.99
Stitcher Radio - Free
Otaku No Podcast - Free
Pocket Casts - $1.99
Moxie
W.E.L.D.E.R. - $1.99
Zombie Highway
Animoog - Currently $.99 (going up to $29.99)
Thanks to everyone who called in apps. Now go and play... or be productive... or make some noise.
App Up for Thanksgiving!
Tonight on Mac OS Ken: Live, we’re doing another App Show. Personally I’m thinking of this one as a Thanksgiving prep show. We’re two weeks away from a four-day weekend, which can mean different things to different people.
For some it’s shopping. There are apps for that.
For some it’s entertaining kids. There are apps for that.
For some it’s working away from the work setting. There are apps for that.
For some it’s keeping up with the friends they’re away from instead of the family with which they’re dining. There are apps for that.
Call in - if you will - with an iOS app or two, including full names, categories, costs, and why you like them.
We may also hit $200 tablets versus iPads and - of course - wild cards are welcome.
10PM Eastern/7PM Pacific - Mac OS Ken: Live is live at http://justin.tv/macosken.
Re-Testing the Farnsworth
If you are a fan of the Syfy show "Warehouse 13," (and if this works) you likely recognize the image above. It's an approximation of one of the communicators used by warehouse agents, called a Farnsworth. Now, it's also an app for iThings. $.99 in the App Store.
It is basically a video messaging app, though it is missing one major element. Notifications. I have seven fellow "agents" in my Farnsworth, and have heard nothing from them. I have sent messages to a couple and received no response. There is no way to turn on notifications (badges, banners, anything) that I can find, which I guess means they are relying on people to check their Farnsworth frequently.
There is an option to email messages, and this works. So, if you want to become an honorary Warehouse agent and want to add me to your contacts, send a request via the Farnswroth to info@macosken.com.
By the way... the Farnsworth sure would go well with the Secret Crypto Wonder Badge, available through the App Store as either a free, ad supported version here, or a paid version here.
So what do you say? Let's all be retro agents and spies!
Update: Someone was kind enough to email and let me know that "Farnsworth" does work with Notifications. My Bad.
Apple to Mac App Store Developers: Everybody in the Sandbox
Thanks to one of the birds in the flock that sends me things sometimes for sending me this:
As The Mac Observer points out, “The requirement affects only those apps submitted to the Mac App Store, but it signals an increase in the amount of control Apple intends to exert through its online Mac software download service.”
My immediate reaction is to wonder how far the "iOSification" of the Mac OS will go. I also wonder into what Apple plans to turn the Mac. Time will tell.
A Sister’s Eulogy for Steve Jobs
This is the most human thing I've ever read about Steve Jobs. It also reminds me of time spent at the bedside of a family member. This is a very moving remberance of a sister for her brother, and a very accurate telling of how a last day can be.
I will say, if we could play that party game... the one where someone says, "If you could ask any one person in history andy one question, who would it be and what would you ask?" I have a new answer.
"So Mr. Jobs... your final words. Say more about that."
Apple Posts "A Celebration of Steve's Life"
Apple has posted a video of the October 19, 2011 employee event celebrating the life of Apple cofounder Steve Jobs. Presenters include Apple CEO Tim Cook, design king Jony Ive, Apple board member Al Gore, Norah Jones, and Coldplay. Check out the video here.
CNET: A Look at 10 Years of iPod
From novelty to center of Apple's resurgence to whatever it is today, CNET has a good pictorial history of iPod at 10.
Rethinking Siri and iPhone 4: It’s Probably Not the Microphone
A kind of correction... kind of trying to suss out what’s going on with the “no Siri on the iPhone 4 and iPad 2” thing.
I posted last week about a conversation I had with someone who had a conversation with someone from Apple. That Apple person indicated that iPhone 4S had a better microphone and mic-processing than iPhone 4 or iPad 2, and bringing the humble, personal assistant to the slightly older devices would lead to a sub-par user experience in Apple’s opinion.Made sense to me and a lot of respondents. Then someone on MacBreak Weekly - I think it was Leo - as well as listener James from the UK - pointed out that you can ask-slash-tell Siri what to do with the earbuds included with an iPhone or with a bluetooth headset, This makes the whole mic argument hold little water.To be clear, I believe the person with whom I was speaking heard what they heard, and I think it’s very possible that the Apple person with whom my person was speaking said what they said because it’s what they heard. But it’s hard to give the idea much credence at this point.On Tuesday’s MacBreak Weekly, Andy Ihnatko said it really probably was the A5 processor that made the iPhone 4S a natch for Siri and a no-go for the iPhone 4. Does that mean the service may make its way to iPad 2 at some point? Say when it leaves beta? I have my doubts, but time will tell.You're sexy, but not as sexy as we'd expected...
Apple crushed previous iPad sales in 4QFY2011. Apple set a new record for quarterly Mac sales. Apple beat its own guidance for revenue and EPS for the quarter. Apple is sitting on $81.5B in cash. But they missed the street's expectations on EPS, quarterly revenue, and iPhone sales. So this happened.
So... does Apple Really expect people to read the iCloud ToS?
This looks like a job for Richard Dreyfuss!
A Little Bird Talks Siri
Image from the Flickr stream of Lifelive
So a highly trusted little bird told me something interesting about Siri yesterday... this little chirper was talking with someone inside Apple who says that the mic on the iPhone 4S is totally smokin. Like awesome not - like - carcinogenic. This Apple so and so, who’s name I can’t say - partly because that would be uncool and partly because I don’t know it... this Apple so and so says that better mic plus the A5 processor in iPhone 4S are the reasons you’ll not only not get the updated Siri on the iPhone 4 or... you won’t get it on the iPad 2 either.
That doesn’t really explain why the Siri app that has served iPhone 4 and other iOS device owners as well as it has for as long as it has gets the axe this Saturday, though my bird person says Apple is shooting for a top of the line experience with Siri and that requires the A5/new mic combo.
Special thanks to my talking, chirping, ornithological friend... who did not - it turns out - demand a cracker.
Did you see what happened to Apple's Stock Thursday?
What happened to Apple's stock the day after Steve Jobs passed away? Pretty much the same thing that happened to it the day after Steve Jobs resigned as CEO. Next to nothing.
No doubt Jobs will be missed on many levels. No one says he won't. But financial analysts including Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster, Ticonderoga Securities' Brian White, and Sterne Agee's Shaw Wu say Jobs set Apple rolling in the right direction and did the right thing training CEO Tim Cook to take the reigns. Canaccord Genuity's T. Michael Walkley agrees and - if Thursday's chart is any indication - so do investors.
A Genius Talks Steve Jobs
Wednesday night when Steve Jobs died, I had a bit of contact with an Apple Genius. Can't say who, can't say where... but I can say what they told me when I asked how things were at the Genius Bar Wednesday night.
It's funny. I've never met him but I feel like I've lost Someone close to me. I'm not an emotional person but I can't hold back my tears.
I have been in Apple Retail as a genius for 8+ years. It was Steve's vision that brought me to Apple. First as a customer then as an employee. As I said I never met him but he had an immense influence on my life. He always challenged us to be better than we thought we could. Steve made me a better person.
My text messages are exploding with texts from people at work. Some of the team is off from work and are driving in to be with the apple family.
Apple will go on but the world is a little less bright.
Developers Developers Developers Developers Developers
Apple has put out the call for iCloud-ready apps for Lion and apps for iOS 5.
Thanks to the little bird who let me know about the call.
Hello Malta!
More virtual stores in more places! Apple Insider says Apple on Thursday opened iTunes Stores in 12 more European countries, bringing the worlds largest music-seller online for the whole of the European Union.
New to the fold: Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta - "makers of fine crosses, knights, and falcons," as Crow T. Robot might say - Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.
I just checked... so far I have no reviews on iTunes Estonia, though Mac OS Ken: Live is the number three tech news podcast in Malta, "makers of fine crosses, knights, and falcons."
Alleged Apple Invitations Invite Select Press to Cupertino for 4 October iPhone Event
How convinced was I that invitations to Apple’s iPhone event would go out tomorrow rather than today? So convinced that I’m not 100% certain that they've actually gone out. Oh sure it’s being reported by All Things D, The Loop, and The Unofficial Apple Weblog... what does that prove? They might just be trying to fool me.
We all know they’re out to get me...
You can run your stories in Apple Insider and CNET and The New York Times. You can show me the art of icons and the tagline “Let’s talk iPhone.” You can hold up all of these things as proof, and what do they prove?
It’s like all of that evolution talk and climate change crap and Trident being safe because 4 out of 5 dentists recommend it for their patients who chew gum. Did it ever occur to you that that fifth dentist may know something?
Did invitations actually go out today? Or is that just what they want you to think?
It’s hard to imagine they did go out today since I didn’t... get...
So yeah, invitations went out today summoning the few, the few, the people important enough to be invited. Sure I could be bitter but that would get in the way of my being truly bitter.
The Place: Apple’s Cupertino-campus
The Date: Tuesday, October 4th
The Time: 10AM PDT
The Purpose: Let’s Talk iPhone.
Says so right on the invitation, “Let’s talk iPhone.”
My money’s on CEO Tim Cook finally announcing a full-on TV Apple TV. Who’s with me Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster?
I really thought the invitation would come out tomorrow.
Telus Treats iPhone Buyers to a Price Cut
Keith in Canada was kind enough to email me about a sale from wireless carrier Telus.
From his email:
Almost as a confirmation of the WSJ piece, Telus in Canada is offering iPhone 4 at $99 until October 3rd, the day before the supposed announcement.
Could be, though I noticed on the site that they are giving away certain Android phones with a new contract as part of a promotion that also ends on October 3rd. Maybe they just want to lock in as many consumers as they can before people have to decide whether to stay put or take off once the new iPhone is announced.
Thanks for the tip Keith!
This might be you...
Frank Petrie of YMP Now (www.ympnow.com) asks me - from time to time - to do a video thing for him. Here is one. Please check out his show. And check this out too. Ahimsa.
Sony Demos the "Tablet P"
I have to give Sony points for making a tablet that is decidedly NOT tablet shaped. But the dual screens seem a bit small, and I cannot tell whether the form factor is just a novelty or actually a useful design. You can read about it (and its more standard shaped counterpart the "Tablet S") from Computerworld here, or read about the "Tablet P" and watch a - for some reason silent - demo video from Engadget here.
